Jake wasn't sure how a clump of rocks could help anything, but he didn't want to be rude. "What is it?"

"Rose quartz with smoky quartz. It's pretty rare. Picked it up in Brazil." She placed it in his hand. "Feel that energy?"

"Sure," he lied.

"See, rose quartz is all about love, connection, drawing it your way and the smoky quartz," she let out a low laugh, "to be blunt, it could replace Viagra."

He tried to laugh, too, but the cringe was too thick. Not as bad as when his mom gave him the talk, but at least she'd been as embarrassed as he was. This lady just went on like it was nothing.

"Now, believe you me, these both pack a punch, but it's more like a wallop when they're bound together, so be careful."

"Well, thanks and everything, but..." He tried to think of a nice way to refuse. Somehow he didn't think "but I'm not a mentally unbalanced hippie" would go over. Shame. She'd seemed nice.

"Oh, go on. I did a cleansing on everything this morning."

Considering it had clumps of dirt in every corner, he wasn't sure how much store he set by her cleaning skills. Then again, she probably meant one of those weird hippie rituals. "Still, I can't just take your products."

She chuckled again. Full of chuckles, this one. She probably had some good weed somewhere in that box. He wondered if he could trade up. "Who says it's a gift? It's a loan. If it does the job, then I'm positive you'll be buying it off me tomorrow. You look trustworthy enough."

"Gee, thanks," he said dully.

"I can tell you're not a believer. Doesn't matter. It'll work all the same. But I mean it. Be careful with that. It might be a bit more than you can handle."

"Sure. I'll try not to drive any heavy machinery." He offered her a weak smile.

She chuckled again. "Now, leave me be so I can finish up. Placement is everything in my business. You don't want your carnelian and your blue lace agate touching."

"Yeah. I was about to say."

She laughed and slapped his arm. "Okay, wise ass. Go get your girl. You'll see."

He tossed her another weak smile and turned back to Juliet. What did Miss Crystal want him to do? Sacrifice this thing to Juliet's jewelry business? He supposed that was one way to sell a rock.

It wasn't a terrible idea. It would be an actual reason to talk to her. 

What the hell was he thinking? Was he really going to pluck down some unknown amount of money for an excuse to talk? This was insane. "Lady must be contagious," he muttered, turning away.

"Oh, hey, Jack?"

He froze. Juliet was calling him. Well, actually she was calling "Jack." He shoved the stone in his back pocket, only because he was not sure if he wanted her to get interested in it. It wasn't like he wanted to hold onto it for himself. It was pink.

"It's actually Jake," he found himself saying as he turned.

She smiled, but with a hint of suspicion. "You sure?"

"Or else my parents have been lying to me for twenty years." He put on a smile, hoping she didn't think he was mad or anything. "I felt weird correcting you before. You seemed so happy to guess right. Didn't want to take it away or anything."

She laughed. "Aren't you sweet." She leaned on her hand and stared up at him. "Anyway, I really meant it about lunch. I'd love to catch up with you and Molly. Maybe even just..." She trailed off and giggled, actually blushed a little. "It feels so awkward to just say it."

"Wha... no! Why should it be awkward? You can say whatever you want." Was she asking him out?

"It is a little bit awkward, though. You know how it is in high school when people have these ideas about who you are and you go along with it." She stood and moved closer, all conspiratorial. "It's so weird when you see someone from that world after you stopped going along, you know? Isn't it crazy that we can be who we want and do what we want now? We're like grownups for real."

"It's insane."

Or at least he was. He must be. He felt behind him for the stone in his pocket, wondering if it was having the magic crystal equivalent of the placebo effect on him. Was he giving off some kind of pheromone? Because it felt like Juliet Bloom was digging him all of a sudden.

Jake worked to keep the conversation— and his luck — going. "You were saying about lunch?"

"Hey, are these your soaps?"

They both turned to the red-faced kid holding a wooden crate.

Juliet clutched her nearly perfect chest. "Finally! Where was it?"

"Over there, I guess," the kid mumbled.

"You guess? And what about my dolly?"

"They're unloading Mrs. Fetterman with it."

"With my dolly? Before my stuff?"

"Juliet?" Jake cut in. "About lunch?"

"I'm sorry. I need to deal with this," Juliet snapped, leading the kid off.

Snapped. Juliet.

That wasn't like the Juliet he knew. Of course, if he was honest, he didn't know what she was like for real. But Fantasy Juliet never snapped.

He found himself touching that ridiculous rock again. It was probably a good thing, for his sake, Juliet was cut off. Crazy as it was, he was starting to think the silly rock was working, even if it was in that placebo way. Maybe the rock wasn't the point. Weren't there cults of people following those self-help books about the power of positive thinking? Some people needed a book for answers, other people needed a rock, he supposed.

Either way, it would be nice to have some kind of plan for the summer besides "do nothing... a lot." He gripped the rock in his pocket, trying for some of that self-help nonsense.

I want some direction, I guess. Was that too lukewarm a stated purpose? Hadn't the woman said this thing was specifically for girl troubles? I want... I want to get the girl. The right girl. I've been with enough wrong girls now and... "This is stupid," he muttered. 

He glanced toward Miss Crystal, as he'd started to call her. It was better than suddenly asking her name. He'd feel like a jerk giving the rock back to her right now. She seemed so sure it was magic. Could be her religion even. Maybe he'd ask Molly to give it back to the lady tomorrow. She was better at that kind of thing.

Where was she, anyway?

He knew he needed to make things right with her and he had only one idea how. It involved an oversized sock monkey with an equally oversized price tag, but he decided it was worth getting out of the doghouse. Monkey in hand, he started for the parking lot, but he found Molly coming out of the bathroom first.

"Well, if it isn't Aquaman," she said as she sauntered out, then stilled, beaming. "And George!"

He knew which she was happier to see, so he held out the monkey. "Come on, Mol, I said I was sorry. It was an accident."

"I'm teasing. It was only water." She let her new friend dangle as she gestured down at herself. "No harm done."

He couldn't help noticing her top. "That new?"

"Brand new. Been looking for an excuse to break it in."

"It's girly."

It was, all floaty and white with and this little red string threaded through the neckline. It was definitely more unapologetically feminine than what he was used to from her. Even at the prom, she wore Doc Martens under her dress.

"I have been known to be girly. And I like it, so no more downpours," she said, poking him in the chest.

He caught her finger, rolling his eyes. "Okay. How long am I going to hear about it? Months? Years?"

She pretended to deliberate. "As long as I can milk it."

"Even with George?"

She seemed to consider it hard, looking over the sock monkey. "He is pretty cute."

"Are we at least done here?"

She glanced into the cafeteria and nodded. "I guess you've been tortured enough."

Of course, that wasn't true. He didn't know it at the time but, in a way, his torture was only beginning.

~~~

"Stop!" he yelled, leaning against the bumper.

Molly stuck her head out the window. "Anything?"

"Not even an inch. Can't you call AAA?"

"Nope. I'm maxed out on services. Dad's still pissed about the gas thing."

"You mean the three gas things," Jake corrected her, trying to stuff some grass and sticks around the tires, "because you live with your needle hovering over E." His mother acted like he was the irresponsible one out of the two of them, always reinforcing Molly's boss status, but Molly sure had her moments.

"What can I say? I like to live on the edge," she called out. "Trying again?"

"Yeah. Fine." He tamped down his anger. How many times had he been Molly's personal AAA technician now? And usually without the right tools for the job!

He supposed the AAA black-out was down to her, but getting stuck in the mud was all him. He was the one who had her take the back road, not realizing it would be a swamp after yesterday's big summer rain.

They'd been talking about Juliet and how she'd obviously been gearing up to ask him out, George chilling in the backseat, when Molly turned up the radio. "Can we talk about your dream girl later?" she yelled over the oldies station and the man telling Brandy she was a fine girl. "I want to get home yesterday."

That's when he argued with her about his shortcut through the farm roads instead of dealing with all the red lights in town and here they were, which was six inches deep in mud. "Gun it on three," he yelled. "One... two...th—aaagh!"

He must not have planted his feet properly. Jake plopped, face-first, as the car moved forward. He tried to be satisfied the car actually went this time, but couldn't get there since he found himself practically swimming in a what felt like a miniature lake filled with muddy water.

He heard Molly slam out of the car. "Jake, are you hurt? What happened?"

Jake tried to stand, but could only manage to push himself onto his back. "I'm not hurt." Except for something poking him in the butt. "I slipped," he heard himself say, sort of dazed.

It wasn't something that happened a lot, so he took a moment to adjust to that and to all the damned feelings. There was this rush of hot embarrassment, then this anger at Molly for dragging him out of the house in the first place, then this almost unbelievably huge craving for a ham and cheese sandwich on potato bread with thin-sliced pickles and crushed-up potato chips jammed into it.

That last part wasn't surprising. He'd actually been thinking of it right before they ended up in the mud, with his mom having promised to go grocery shopping this morning. Right now, wet and caked in mud as he was, that sandwich seemed like the answer to all of life's questions.

What was surprising was that his best friend, who he so nicely pushed out of a muddy roadside, was laughing at him. He changed his mind. This was all her fault for dragging him out of his house in the first place. He'd have had that sandwich an hour ago! The anger pushed the sandwich slightly back in his mind. But only slightly.

"Something funny?" Jake asked with a glare.

"You slipped," she giggled, then snorted slightly. "You with your perfectly honed reflexes!"

"A 'thank you' might—"

"God, the look on your face!"

He narrowed his eyes as she devolved into wheezy squeals. "Yeah, keep it up! This is your fault. If you hadn't got yourself stuck with no AAA, then we wouldn't be--"

"Oh, Jake. Calm down. It's just a little water," she snorted, throwing his own words from earlier back in his face.

"And mud," he pointed out. Sure, he'd splashed her, but not with mud! And he bought her a monkey! He was just about to point that out when she doubled over in another fit.

"Oh, my God! You even have a little mud goatee. I need a picture! Hold it right there. My phone is in the car. Don't move."

That was it. He'd had enough. He grasped her arm and tugged. "See how you like it," he muttered as she landed next to him.

"Jake!" Molly sat up and pushed at his shoulder. "I'm wearing my new blouse, you idiot!"

"Then I guess it's not so funny now," he said, pushing back. She came up swinging.

"It's different for you. You're wearing ripped jeans and that ugly puke-green T-shirt." She pointed a stiff finger at her blouse. "This cost me two weeks in that shitty work-study washing dishes, you jerk!"

He looked down, trying not to feel guilty. "Well, that'll teach you to..." He lost all words in a second, nearly hypnotized by that blouse.

"First the water, now this. Real banner day for me. I can't believe..." Her voice faded into the background because that blouse was splattered with muddy rainwater. Of course, it wasn't the stains that had him so stupefied. It was the nipples. The blouse was white, after all, and paper thin and plastered to her. It's not like he'd never noticed that Molly had breasts before but, whenever he did, he felt obligated to look away as quickly as possible, out of respect and all that stuff.

This was very disrespectful, right here. So why couldn't he stop?

Also, had it gotten cold out? He couldn't even tell right now, but parts of Molly seemed to think it was. Maybe he should use Molly's nipples as a reference point on the question of weather. They should be studied at length. They could replace that sandwich as the answer to all of life's questions.

"... and now it's totally... Jake! Are you even listening?" She crossed her arms. It forced his eyes up to her red face and her narrowed eyes.

"I'm listening," he lied. "You're right." He wasn't even sure exactly what he was agreeing to, but he knew those were the only words that helped when her face was this red. "I'm sorry," he added, because those words usually worked, too.

"Sure you are," she scoffed.

"No, I am. I shouldn't have pulled you down just for laughing. I am an asshole." Also a perv. His eyes were drifting again.

She sighed. "Maybe asshole is a bit much. You're more of a jerkface."

"I can buy you a new one. If we can find it online—"

"I don't know. Maybe it can be cleaned." She pulled her arms apart and stared down at it.

So did he, but not so much at the muddy bits. He was still very interested in the semi-transparent parts. "No. I should get you a new one. I owe you one. I probably owe you a few after what I did." And what I am doing right now. Stop it! He forced his eyes up just before she noticed.

She rolled her eyes and gave him a slight smile. "Let's see what my mom can do first."

"I really am sorry." Usually, when things got to this point, they hugged. God, that would feel amazing right now. He opened his arms, not even meaning to, but she was leaning in.

That is, until she stopped, peering warily at him. "Is this some trick before you give me a face-plant?"

"Of course not." He tilted his head, giving her his best contrite face, and opened his arms wider.

"Okay, then." She finally leaned forward and uncrossed her arms. He snatched her to him.

"That's nice," he breathed, running his hands over her back, pressing her closer to his chest. "Very nice." Seeing nipples through a thin blouse was great, but feeling them was way better.

Was she even wearing a bra?

"Yeah. Hugging's nice and all."

"Mmm."

"Jake?"

"Hmm?"

"Stop kidding around. I know you're trying to get me muddier." She started to pull back, but he held tight. He hadn't even figured out what she had on underneath that thing. The straps felt too thin to be a bra. Could it possibly be a bikini? He'd never seen her in anything but a one-piece with a giant T-shirt over it. Would she mind if he asked?

"Relax," he said in her ear.

"Jake..." Molly shivered and her hands tightened on his shoulders in a way that felt like she wouldn't mind at all. "What are you—"

She broke off as he let his lips graze her ear as he whispered, "We don't hug enough."

"I... I guess not." Her voice was shaky. "Jake?"

"Hmm?" he hummed against her neck.

"This is more than hugging."

He stiffened slightly as he realized he was technically kissing her neck. Oh, why not? "Is it?" He pressed his lips against a sweet little spot right under her ear and it suddenly felt like her entire body was shivering. "We don't kiss enough," he murmured before lifting his head, finding her lips blindly.

TBC

************************

Uh-oh! It seems the crystal is pointing Jake to an unexpected girl. Someone needs to correct this!